Planet Minis

NickSimcheck

I wanted to introduce myself, and share my story about my Z50RD with the community.

I have had my Z50RD since I was 8, it was my first motorcycle. I rode it until I was about 12 when I got a bigger bike. My father was wise enough to keep the bike cause he knew it was pretty rare.

Time passed, the bike has been long forgotten. When I moved into my house 3 years ago I asked him if I could take the bike with me, he agreed.

I stood between the forks of a Clark forklift and cut the starter rope that held my Z50RD 14ft in the air, dangerious and scary...but myself and the bike both made it to the ground without injury. See he hung it high in the barn cause he knew that was the only way he could keep people from wanting to borrow it or let their kid take it for a ride.

I took it home and carried it down into my basement, to be forgotten again...But here I am, 3 years later.

I want to restore the bike and give it to my son (no children yet) when he is turns 8. I scouted the internet and stumbled across this forum.


My plan is to photograph the bike as I strip it down (I am a photographer, and have the right equipment to do a nice time lapse), and rebuild it. I can then make a video slideshow with images from myself riding the bike when I was a kid, then the strip & rebuild and finally my son riding it. This project is more-or-less for sentimental reasons.

The first thinigs I need help with are;

Does the "D" in Z50RD stand for "Dealer" or "December", I have heard both. The "Dealer" was because story goes only high-sales dealers got them (1 per dealer) and the other story is "December" because that was the month of the Christmas special was sold.

What is the best service manual? (full rebuild service manual, torque specs, etc.)

Who sells replica parts? I have stumbled across some websites, but not many.

Does anybody know who can repair dents in the tank, and rechrome? (I want to keep all the orignal major parts)

Any other information would help me a lot.

Thanks again,
Nick

Z

Either Honda or Clymer Service Manual.

If you are restoring an RD, why use replica parts?

In regards to your tank, you can still purchase them, but they aren't cheap. Unless you know somone who is good with lead bodywork, buy a new, correct tank for the bike and build up the rest.

NickSimcheck

Do you know where I could get ahold of a Clymer Manual. I'm assuming Honda dealer should have the honda one.

By replica I mean like the handle grips which are rotted off mine, need the red ones and if I can find NOS then great but I assume most of that stuff is replica?

I'll see if I can't get the dents out (2 of them, egg size) and then if I can't get them pulled...I'll decide if I want to keep the orignal or buy a new one.

Thanks for the advise!

MAZZ77X

Sounds like a great project, and for a great reason! As a photographer how about starting off with a before shot? Best of luck with the bike and future kids. Their a hand full I have two of my own.

NickSimcheck

I'm going to fully document it's current condition, which is anything but show worthy.

So I'll get a good 360° view and then take about 300 pictures of the strip down (at 5 FPS, that's 1 minute) and another 500 when I put it back together (to create the illusion that I put a lot more work into putting to back together).

The important thing is to measure the height of the camera, it's distance from the bike, the focal length, the angle, make sure the camera and bike are both square and repeat those steps with every light used on the bike and the background. If you don't, then the rebuild will look different from the strip down.

Time consuming, but it's really cool when done right.

I'll post pictures of it's current (none running) condition.

NickSimcheck

Oh hey, I forgot to ask...

Does anybody know approx how many Z50RD's were made?

Z

Lots of speculation on how many of the 1986 RD's were made, but no firm answers. Some claim each dealer got a pair to sell if they wanted them. They sold like poop just like the 1988 ZB50 did.

In 1986, Honda made no more than 11650 Z50R's and they were a mix between the R's and the RD's.

From what I've seen, the standard R's were less common then the RD's and you see them much less often for sale.

Honda shows the VIN's as follows:

Z50RD JH1AB020*GS70001 through GS710561

Z50R JH1AB020*GS70001 through GS711651

They both share the same vin structure and other then the obvious chrome work and other obvious color differences, if both bikes were stripped to bare metal with no finishing on any of the parts, you couldn't tell them apart by the VIN so nobody can verify production numbers, and Honda doesn't share that information.

On average, Honda sold 3000-5000 Z50R's a year between 1986 and 1992.

In summary - The RD's are cool, but not rare as they made more in one model year then most of the rest of the Z50R run.

NickSimcheck

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it.

Those numbers would make you think less Z50RD's were produced because it ended 1,100 shorter then the Z50R's. But then again, they could have made 95% of 70001-710561 in RD.

Makes you think that they will never become real collectors because a Z50R could be chromed and the VIN wouldn't say otherwise. And that of course could work in vice verca turning a RD into an R.

Z

People collect them because they are unique and not because they are "rare"..

I'll post up production numbers of some of the other ranges of Z50R's over the next week and you'll see probably more RD's were produced then any other Z50R model made.

If you want low production, go for the 1988 ZB50. Made 1 year and 3058 were made for the US market.